« A NEW KIND OF FLUORIDE? | Main | WORST. SONGS. EVER. »
July 31, 2004
SETTING THE STAGE
ESPN.com recently ran an article on the Texas Rangers' young infield - already one of the best in the game, and the players are all under the age of 28. One of the lines in the article that caught my eye was this one:
[Hank] Blalock, like [Michael] Young, has emerged as a no-frills team leader: when asked what song he wanted played on the public address system for each of his at-bats, Blalock didn't want one, saying, "Hey, I'm a hitter, not a musician."
Well Hank... I was both. And while I respect your single-minded focus on the game, I never thought about it the same way. I get jazzed from the idea of playing some good old-fashioned pump-up music as players go to bat.
My own baseball career didn't work out... a foolish decision to play football senior year cost me my left knee and any baseball future I might have had. But had I made it... this article made me wonder which songs I might have played when i came up to bat.
I love "Hell's Bells" by AC/DC... absolutely love it. I'd love to hear that song playing while I walked up to the plate. There's two problems with using it though: the build up takes a good 30 seconds, and it doesn't take more than 10 to walk to the plate from the on-deck circle; also, the Padres' reliever Trevor Hoffman has pretty much patented the song as his entrance theme. So I guess I can't use that one. "Welcome to the Jungle" by Guns-n-Roses is also a great pump-me-up song. But Derek Jeter and the Yankees use it, so it has awful associations for me.
So where does that leave me? Hmm... the title has nothing to do with sports, but the guitar riff from Van Halen's "Ain't Talkin' Bout Love" is pretty kick ass, and I could see myself striding to bat to that song with two outs and two on. The beginning of Motley Crue's "Dr. Feelgood" also has an air of adrenalin to it that I could see getting played. "Master of Puppets" by Metallica would be fun, too.
Even though it's more famous as the song Michael Jordan got introduced to, I think "Sirius" by the Alan Parsons Project is one of the best, most adrenalin-inducing instrumentals around. It's less rocking and driving like the hard rock classics I was running through above, but it sounds vaguely dark, like something foreboding is on the way (which is exactly what I'd want the other team thinking if I were coming up).
I love the opening to "Couldn't Stand The Weather" by Stevie Ray Vaughn, but it takes too long to get going. And even though I am not a hip-hop fan, Usher's "Yeah!" has a very cool beat to it that I might enjoy. The "Hawaii Five-O Theme" might have some kitsch value too.
But at the end of the day, if I couldn't use "Hell's Bells," I think I'd have to use some Ozzy Osbourne. "Bark At The Moon," "Crazy Train," "No More Tears," or even "Iron Man" would be awesome.
So why did I waste your time riffing on this? Because I'm curious as to which songs you would use. Come on, guys: it's the bottom of the ninth, there's two out, the tying run is on third, the winning run is on second, and you are coming to bat. What song's playing on the PA system?
Comments
"Hair of the Dog" by Nazareth
Posted by: John at June 7, 2006 10:49 AM
